@tobyblhand to the problem with tuneshell and >>albums with various artists separate into many albums<<:

I am using the free version of tuneshell, and I solved this problem for me this way:

My albums are tagged with >>various artists<< in the tagfield >>albumartist<<, and I use copytransmanager to sync my files with the iphone. After that, albums with diffent artists in the tagfield >>artist<< are shown again as one album in tuneshell. This does not work, if you copy your files directly into the tuneshell directory on your i-device or if you use itunes to copy your files directly to tuneshell.

Hope this works for you, because my one and only reason why i did not use tuneshell before was just this problem with the separation into many albums.

Since latest update of tuneshell to Version 2.3 two of three 'cons' mentioned by tobyblh have gone:

albums now are sorted by >>albumartist<< and no longer by >>artist<<, and it has now a sleep-timer.

You can use a program like 'funbox' to copy your files easily and fast to your i-device, simply by drag an drop complete folders from your pc into the directory 'user applications / tuneshell / documents'.

If possible, I'd now delete the original musicplayer from my iphone to save space for music instead ;-)

>> I plan to switch to Iphone from android and webos too - just for musical capabilities <<

Really?? I was considering getting off of iPhone and going to Android because there are hardly any decent players as alternatives to iTunes.

I did just purchase TuneShell based on the advice here and it seems pretty good, thanks. Maybe I'll stick with iPhone a bit longer.

Also I just found a desktop music player/converter program for OSX which seems really good so far, it is called "Clementine". Check it out. I like that it handles FLAC <--> WAV and you can play files from your DropBox account.

It would be nice to see an iAudirvana App…is there some proprietary obstacles to developing an audiophile-grade player for iDevices? Or are they just not powerful enough? Of course I understand the proprietary limitations to digital output, licensing, etc., but those restrictions seem to be loosening with time. All of them can stream digital audio via AirPlay (e.g., to AppleTV, which then sends digital audio through optical out, and could properly feed a DAC, right?).